More 3D prints

 art, awesomeness, Hmm..., models, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, projects, rockets, science fiction, spacecraft, weapons  No Responses »
May 062024
 

1/350 War Rocket, 1/18 Pulse Units, 1/18 Atomic Artillery Shells.

 

 

The War Rocket was modified & printed from a file created for Fantastic Plastic. Their version – currently available – is in much larger 1/144 scale. I was impressed with the tiny details that this smaller print picked up, but the wings are mutated. Two have been printed, both with mucked-up wings. Another round of printing is planned with the models standing straight up to see if that fixes the issue; but since that’ll be a *16* *hour* print job, it’s a low priority.

 

 

Buttons horned in on the photography. He’s allowed. He’s old, he was unwell last night, he wanted attention, he gets it. He’s at this moment making typing a challenge for me.

 

The “pulse units” are actually failed Casaba Howitzers. The telescope components failed rather spectacularly. But with some minimal mods, they’ll make great pulse units for the 10-Meter Orion.

 

 

The 1/18 Atomic Artillery Shells have printed numerous times fantastically. They’re basically in production, but the rather simple stand I created for the set refuses to print right. Weird.

 

 

 

 Posted by at 8:37 pm

1/18 3D printed A-Bombs

 art, awesomeness, models, nukes, weapons  No Responses »
Apr 292024
 

I’ve printed off two more Fat Man bombs in 1/18. I can see where improvements can be made to the CAD model, but as is they’ll build up into spiffy little pieces.

 

Right now I’ve got 2 Fat Man, 2 Little Boy hopefully to sell to help defray costs; if there is interest I can clearly print out more. If interested, let me know. I have two of each right now hopefully to sell to help defray costs; if there is interest I can clearly print out more. So… who wants ’em? $60 per Little Boy, $100 per Fat Man, plus postage.  If you want both Little Boy and Fat Man… $150 + postage.

 

If I refine these for a regular production run, there will be some changes for improved printing, some additional details and importantly stands. But “if” is doing a lot of heavy lifting, and the refined production kits will probably run 1.5 to 2 times as much. 3D printed kits provide options that cast resin kits can’t match, such as complete tail units, but they take many hours each to produce.

Photos at Twitter:

 

 Posted by at 10:30 pm

3D print results

 art, awesomeness, models, nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft, weapons  No Responses »
Apr 272024
 

I’ve been running the 3D printer, with mixed results. Failures and disappointments are the fault of the CAD models; the printer itself (Anycubic Photon Mono X 6Ks) is working as advertised. Printing is not a fast process; some prints took 12 hours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Posted by at 2:32 pm

Ballpoint Pen Bombers

 art, awesomeness, drawings, history, humor, Monthly Historical Documents Program, nukes, Patreon, rockets, spacecraft, weapons  No Responses »
Apr 232024
 

This is a little outside the usual for APR, as it is satire rather than actual aerospace design. But I thought it appropriate nonetheless; I remember dreaming up just about the exact same ideas when I was twelve. There was something about the design of those pens that just *screamed* for them to be envisioned as spaceships and missiles and whatnot.

The full-rez scan of the article, and a few more bits, been made available as a thank-you to APR Patreon and Historical Documents Program patrons at the $4 and above level, placed in the 2024-04 APR Extras Dropbox folder. If interested in this or if you are interested in helping to fund the preservation of aerospace histgory, please consider becoming a patron, either through the APR Patreon or the Monthly Historical Document Program.

 Posted by at 11:29 am

Minis visualized

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, blather, CAD diagrams, Hmm..., models, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, projects, spacecraft  No Responses »
Apr 192024
 

Here are some hypothetical subjects for metal casting as “minis.” I have three pages (standard 8.5X11) of diagrams, all depicting possible subjects at the size they would be at the stated scales. First page shows what I consider a number of interesting designs… not at a constant scale, but size.

 

 

 

Second page depicts a range of Project Orion vehicles again at a roughly constant size. Constant size means, hopefully, a consistent cost.

 

Third page shows two sets of 8. The US Bomber Projects #1 set has 8 bombers at roughly constant size; US Fighter Projects #1 set has the fighters all at the same scale. 1/285 at least used to be a kind of standard for wargaming, though I’m not sure how widespread it truly was.

 

Sets like USBP01 would probably all be at about the same price, but those like USFP01 might vary since some designs at quite a bit bigger. What I’m kinda hoping for is the individual minis being about $25 each, while the 8-sets be about $100 each. Thoughts?

 

These are of course not the full possible catalog, nor would all these here necessarily come to pass. And scales/sizes could vary substantially. A lot of it would depend on actually trying them and see what works, what fails spectacularly.

 Posted by at 7:47 pm

Coming to ebay: ships, phasers, books

 aircraft, art, books, eBay, history, nukes, science fiction, weapons  No Responses »
Mar 262024
 

Hansen’s “US Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History” is particularly nice. Contact with ridiculously generous bribes if you’re prefer not to wait:

 

 

 Posted by at 3:47 pm

“Midgetman” article

 APR, history, Monthly Historical Documents Program, nukes, Patreon, rockets, weapons  No Responses »
Mar 052024
 

I’ve just uploaded a 1986 article on the “Midgetman” road-mobile Small ICBM developed but not deployed by the US at the end of the Cold War to Dropbox for above-$10 APR Patrons/Subscribers.

 

 

This is of course on top of the monthly rewards packages and the “Extras” posted rather irregularly. If you’d be interested, consider subscribing:

https://www.aerospaceprojectsreview.com/monthly.htm

 Posted by at 7:19 am

Orion Space Battleship

 APR, awesomeness, blather, CAD diagrams, history, Hmm..., Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, projects, rockets, weapons  No Responses »
Jan 222024
 

With all the little publications I’ve written and illustrated, and all the years of blogging ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT political opinions and the like, it seems that at least *one* of my efforts will go down through the ages: my design for the Orion Battleship. We know to a fair certainty that such a craft was designed in the early 1960s, and that a mockup the size of a car was built; we know some of the components and features of that design. But other than that… we don’t know much. The overall size and configuration are unknown. So, fifteen years ago when I was working on an article for Aerospace Projects Review about large Orion vehicles, I went ahead and made a speculative reconstruction design. I did my best with what was available… and in the years since, nothing seems to have come out to refute the design. I do not contend that the design is an accurate reconstruction; I was never able to get in touch with anyone who knew the Battleship design first-hand to confirm my reconstruction. I could well be *badly* wrong, especially since the descriptions of the original design tend to be second-hand. One day we might find out for sure.

But in the years since I showed my design to the world, I’ve seen it recreated here and there. It seems to be the accepted Actual Design.

Huh.

Behold:

That second video uses a model based on my design, more renders of which are HERE.

Shipbucket:

A purchasable 3D printed, lower fidelity copy of my design on Etsy:

 

My renders – unimpressive even by 2009 standards – even made it into meme format:

If you want to see the Orion Battleship as I designed it in its original format, check out Aerospace Projects Review issue V2N2.

 Posted by at 12:41 am

Forced deflection nozzles for ICBMs

 drawings, Hmm..., nukes, projects, rockets, weapons  No Responses »
Oct 192023
 

There are several ways to accomplish the goal of extracting maximum performance from a solid rocket motor via the nozzle. The most common way – a convergent-divergent nozzle – is the standard for a reason: it’s the simplest, lightest most reliable way to do it. But there are alternatives that provide specific advantages. One of them is the “forced deflection nozzle.” Instead of a single circular throat, the nozzle has several; instead of directing the exhaust gas due aft, it forces it “sideways” to smack into the broader, shallower nozzle.

The advantages here:

1: The nozzle is sort of a hemispherical bowl, rather than a long, slim cone or paraboloid.

2: It provides some altitude compensation, similar to an aerospike.

There are also disadvantages, not least of which is that the throat is now under substantially greater thermal and dynamic forces. Few materials known to Man will be able to long withstand the high heat load and erosive forces. But in 1986, Aerojet proposed to develop such a nozzle for a singular purpose: to integrate into future ICBMs. The reasoning was… the bowl-like nozzle fits the bowl-like forward dome of the lower stage. Instead of a long interstage structure being required, the stages fit together neatly. in principle this would allow ballistic missiles to be more compact, shorter by useful distances. This is not very important for space launchers, but for missiles that need to fit into silos, submarines, bomb bays or Shuttle cargo bays, extra space means extra capacity.

 

 

Diagram showing a conventional 3-stage solid rocket ICBM against three concepts making use of the forced deflection nozzle. You could have a much shorter vehicle with equivalent weight and payload, or same-length boosters with 28.4% greater range for the same payload, or 33% greater payload for the same range.

 Posted by at 9:02 pm
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